Labyrinth de María Camila Badillo Montoya

“Remember to rest well t ry to not stress too much and do not eat too much the day before. But also, don’t go with an empty stomach. D on’t rely on what you think you know read carefully all the questions, and relax”. Those were some of the recommendations that our beloved character received the week in which he would take the admission exam of La Universidad Nacional. “The best university in the country” some relatives would say with pride, while our main character fell into the anxiety and stress that this test generated on him. 

 He woke up that Sunday at three in the morning. He couldn’t really sleep. After checking his phone, he decided to have a cup of coffee which by the third sip made him feel nauseous. Without eating anything else, our character proceeded to take the backpack he had left perfectly packed the day before and left his house when it was still dawn. 

He decided to go on foot It wasn’t that far anyway which was an advantage so he could walk around the university for a while, search for the building and classroom he had been assigned to, and try to pretend that he wasn’t as lost as the rest of the applicants, or even more. 

 “Building 24, classroom 302”, he repeated as if he were conjuring a spell, “Building 24, classroom 302, classroom 3 0 2” It was still dark, and he was the first to arrive at the university He stopped in front of the building, confirmed that it was the correct number and proceeded to sit in the chairs of the huge cafeteria that was located a little bit further down building 24. Now seated and comfortable enough, our character finally fell asleep. Two hours later a deafening sound woke him up. Not knowing where it came from and worried about the abundance of light and the lack of people, he fearfully checked his watch. 8:02 AM. “Damn it, I'm late!!”, he yelled as he grabbed his things and headed for the classroom. 

He climbed up the stairs and encountered a huge wall that prevented him from passing through. “What the he murmured before going down again. He turned back and down the staircase again and ran to the closest exit, but another wall fell in front of him. He looked at his watch again; 8:25AM. "What's going on!?”, he screamed in the middle of the desolated cafeteria that was starting to get filled with walls and stairs that now made it look more like a labyrinth. 

He was looking for any sign of light Wherever the light comes from, that's the way out of this hellhole" he thought. Looking up, he found a small hole in the roof. He looked to the side and saw a staircase that was close enough to the hole in the roof so he climbed the stairs, threw himself against the walls, jumped and overwhelmed by the fear slipped right when he was about to reach the hole, and he fell. He fell, like a feather, like a lea f but also like a rock. 

He fell to the ground and screamed with all his force. A harsh light and a pair of arms from someone else forced him to open his eyes. There he was on the floor of his room, next to his bed, waking up at 3:02 in the morning.

Magically de Luis David Libreros Ponce

You have been a valuable member of my mind and my deepest intimacies, I do not know how a person without any kind of physical relationship could have entered my mind and heart with such subtlety and beauty, with delicacy, but with steps so strong that rumble when I only hear your name. Thanks to you I was able to make my first “Friend”, however, all kinds of people can not use that word easily, it carries with it a kind of magic, which cannot be conceived, but burns and heals the whole soul.

I was able to call you "Friend" after that incident, remember? That reckless hound that yearned for my death, but you defended me, you came out of total fiction to chase away that demon from my sight, from that moment I could understand that you would be a giant member of my thoughts and reason, so I followed you. I wished you all the best in my deepest thoughts, even if I treated you with rusty words, I couldn’t open my heart and express to you how great my love for you was.

Despite all the fights and disparities, we were still together, an unreachable duo, between camping and nature outings, it could be said that there was nothing else that could not be learned that was not learned if you were not around. However, you had to grow, you had to change. This world of the devil wants us to change our purest feelings and fill them with machinery and optimization. I could only observe, happy and sad, how you ventured on the paths of knowledge and left aside the nature that you were so eager to explore with me.

You returned years later, my senses returned to see how you got off of that strange contraption at the old door, at your home. However, when you offered that slight smile to our forest, in which we always met, you were not able to see me, that innocent child that I had known many years ago had disappeared. Does this fairy no longer fit in your love and thought? Can't you feel me no more, listen to me, or even remember me?

With these last words, I say goodbye, my “Friend”, when I see you drive away across the plain with your speed gadget, I suppose that our destiny finds the stop at this precise moment. I regret your death, and for this, I direct my words to your grave, but it is not a physical grave, of course not, with the reflection that I see I'm graced, thanks to my green eyes as our relationship, of you as an entity that I do not understand, but blissful. Even so, this fairy makes your burial of her mind, I cannot bear such an imposing being over my thoughts, to walk away without any memory.

Since I magically loved you, I physically buried you.